Construction

Electronics

An early battery consisting of a series of alternated disks of dissimilar metals, usually zinc and copper, each separated by paper or cloth soaked in an electrolyte. Also called voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.

A deprecated term for nuclear reactor.

A stack, such as a carbon pile, of elements or objects utilized together.

Real Estate

noun a vertical wood, metal or concrete support for a building or other structure that is driven into the ground.

noun the surface of a carpet or of a fabric such as velvet that is formed of short, sometimes cut, loops of fibre

verb to use piles as a support for a building or other structure

Origin & History of “pile”

English has three words pile. The commonest, ‘heap’ (15th c.), originally meant ‘pillar’. It comes ultimately from Latin pīla ‘pillar’, sourcealso of English pilaster, pillar, etc. this evolved in meaning to ‘pier or harbourwall made of stones’, and inspired a derived verbpīlāre ‘heap up’ (source of English compile (14th c.)). The sense ‘heap’ came to the fore in Old French pile, and passed into English.

Pile ‘post driven into the ground’ (OE) was borrowed into Old English from Latin pīlum ‘javelin’. It was originally used for a ‘throwing spear’, ‘arrow’, or ‘spike’, and its present-day use did not emerge (via ‘pointed stake or post’) until the middle English period.